Cinnamon May Lower Blood Sugar Levels

Move over ginseng! Recently, nutritionists have been touting the medicinal benefits of cinnamon. Used in a variety of recipes – from hot chocolate to soup to grapefruit – this spice has been shown to promote healthy blood sugar levels in people with type 2 diabetes.

“Good medicine doesn’t always take the form of a pill. Sometimes the answer, or part of the answer, can be found in your kitchen cabinet,” says Dr. Richard Goldfarb, the medical director for the Bucks County Clinical Research Center.

In a recent Pakistani study, participants ingested 1-6g of cinnamon daily for a total of 40 days, while a control group took a placebo in the same amounts. The cinnamon group showed a significant drop in their blood sugar, cholesterol, and triglyceride levels, even after the study was concluded.

“It is our hope that better eating habits and simple, everyday herbs like cinnamon can become allies in people’s journey toward disease-free living through proper nutrition,” says Dr. Goldfarb. Working with an Arizona biotech company, Goldfarb hopes the development of a concentrated liquid extract of cinnamon will bring down high blood sugar to healthier levels in type 2 diabetics. Cinnamon health products may prove to be another potent diabetes prevention treatment.

So spice up your healthy eating! Cinnamon is a great source of manganese, fiber, iron, and calcium and – moreover – it just tastes great!

To answer your question, Raymond, scientific data on the efficacy of natural supplements to date has not been available or all that reliable.

A recent Mayo Clinic study found that “roughly two thirds of adults using commonly consumed [natural supplements] did not do so in accordance with evidence-based indications.”

That means that there is a disconnect between sound scientific research, supplements, and how people are taking the supplements.

Until supplements undergo the same kind of rigourous clinical trials that medications do, many claims made by makers of supplements will remain be based on faulty, incomplete research or on anecdotal reports.

The Pakistani study design appears to be sound (or at least currently uncontested) and was testing regular cinnamon. I am not aware of any studies comparing cinnamon to supplements at this point in time.